1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of non-volatile memory devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a method of erasing multi-bit flash electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) cells that utilize the phenomena of hot electron injection to trap charge within a trapping dielectric material within the gate.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Memory devices for non-volatile storage of information are currently in widespread use today, being used in a myriad of applications. A few examples of non-volatile semiconductor memory include read only memory (ROM), programmable read only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) and flash EEPROM.
Semiconductor EEPROM devices involve more complex processing and testing procedures than ROM, but have the advantage of electrical programming and erasing. Using EEPROM devices in circuitry permits in-circuit erasing and reprogramming of the device, a feat not possible with conventional EPROM memory. Flash EEPROMs are similar to EEPROMs in that memory cells can be programmed (i.e., written) and erased electrically but with the additional ability of erasing all memory cells at once, hence the term flash EEPROM.
An example of a single transistor Oxide-Nitrogen-Oxide (ONO) EEPROM device is disclosed in the technical article entitled "True Single-Transistor Oxide-Nitride-Oxide EEPROM Device," T. Y. Chan, K. K. Young and Chenming Hu, IEEE Electron Device Letters, March 1987. The memory cell is programmed by hot electron injection and the injected charges are stored in the oxide-nitride-oxide (ONO) layer of the device. This article teaches programming and reading in the forward direction. Thus, a wider charge trapping region is required to achieve a sufficiently large difference in threshold voltages between programming and reading. This, however, makes it much more difficult to erase the device.
An attempt to improve the erasure of such ONO EEPROM devices is disclosed in both U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,192 and PCT patent application publication WO 99/07000, the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In those disclosed devices, a cell is erased by applying a constant negative voltage to the gate over a plurality of cycles. However, the number of cycles and time to erase the memory cell can become large. Furthermore, the memory cell may become degraded should the number of cycles needed to erase the cell becomes too large. The slowing down of the erase speed is due to the trapping of positive charge in the oxide layers that leads to a reduction in band-to-ban tunneling during erasure and/or charge spill over into the nitride layer.